Wild rides in L.A.
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, January 4, 2006
LOS ANGELES – What do you get when you cross “Pimp My Ride” with “Cribs”?
Something like the wilder offerings at this week’s Los Angeles Auto Show.
Automakers are taking cues from customizers, including those on MTV’s car makeover and celebrity homes shows, to design rides that feel more like living rooms – or in the case of one customized Chevrolet SSR, like back yards.
The SSR, tricked out by a Southern California company and unveiled Wednesday, features a barbecue grill that folds out from the flat bed of the truck, along with a refrigerator and 32-inch satellite TV.
It’s not even the most extreme example of a trend toward cars that feel like second homes. That would be a Nissan concept car called the Urge, which lets drivers park and use the steering wheel and pedals to play video games. It debuts Sunday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
While the more whimsical features – grills and video games – won’t be in showrooms anytime soon, an “explosion of customization” has led some automakers to offer frills that consumers once had to add themselves, said Larry Wu, who monitors emerging technologies for J.D. Power and Associates.
It wasn’t so long ago that only champagne-popping rappers had TVs and DVD players in the back seat – options that these days are nothing new to bored kids strapped into minivans.
More than 50 models now offer back-seat entertainment systems, Wu said. Apple Computers, meanwhile, is working with 15 automakers to integrate iPods into vehicle sound systems.
Cars have always offered a retreat from the outside world, but long commutes are increasing consumers’ desire for a rolling sanctuary, said Art Spinella, president of the Bandon, Ore.-based CNW Marketing Research. That means a growing demand for the built-in comforts of home.
Though difficult to quantify, the market for home-style add-ons including computers and entertainment centers now totals $150 million to $200 million a year and could easily grow to $750 million within the next six years, Spinella said. Over the past two years, the portion of drivers who want Internet connections in their cars went from 3 percent to 11 percent, according to the company’s surveys, and there was an even bigger jump when it came to MP3 players.
“More and more people are outfitting their cars the way they would a room in their house,” Spinella said. “It used to be that coffee holders were more than sufficient, but now they want to plug in their coffee and keep it hot.”
The recent rash of customization – and of automakers borrowing customer ideas – reflects the influence of Southern California’s hip-hop car culture on the rest of the country.
“Pimp My Ride,” the MTV reality show hosted by rapper Xzibit, is the gold-and-diamond-studded standard of car makeover shows. The show features junkers being rebuilt into immaculate show cars with things like fireplaces and fish tanks.
Al &Ed’s Autosound, a Van Nuys-based chain that built the grill-equipped SSR, started out in 1954 installing radios and speakers. But as factory sound systems improved, the company started outfitting cars with iPods and even the occasional refrigerator.
Each month, the company installs six to 12 laptop computers so drivers can look up directions or send e-mails.
“Well, not while they’re driving,” added John Haynes, Al &Ed’s product manager.
